


Designs

by Harukami



Series: For The Birds [7]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-17 22:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2326193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beni reveals what he's worried about regarding Koujaku; Huracan decides to do some legwork. Er. Wingwork.</p>
<p>Told you the next part wouldn't be as long this time! This is getting more chapter-like than series-like, isn't it? Oh well, these things change as we go...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Designs

Huracan curls his fingers carefully against Beni's shoulders. He feels suddenly incredibly self-conscious of the space between their bodies -- should he close it? Should he keep Beni at arm's length? Even though in this form they are, more than ever, just information, this is also the only time their feelings are comparable to a human's, electronic signals translated into sensation, and he doesn't want to overstep his boundaries. He settles for pulling Beni into a careful hug.

"What's wrong with Koujaku?" he asks.

Beni shakes his head, then presses it into Huracan's shoulder. He's visibly unnerved, and that unsettles Huracan more than the display of emotion would otherwise. "It's not like... it's not like I can explain it," Beni says.

"Please do try."

Beni lets out a huff of breath almost more irritable than distressed. "I can't... it's not like he _seems_ that different. Like, after the whole thing with Aoba, he started seeming way more at ease! And that should be good, right? But he's also gotten way... way more distant than before. Like, if it has to do with Aoba he's still fine. If it's time to go hang out with him for lunch or whatever, he's back to his happy and laid-back self, yanno?"

"All right..."

"But when he'd been pinin' over him, he was at least leaning on me and the team. Now, whenever it's not something to do with Aoba, he goes weirdly broody. He's not been putting his chair out to cut hair and won't explain why, he's isolating himself totally from Benishigure, and he won't tell me anything!"

Huracan shifts uneasily. He doesn't want to dismiss this out of hand, especially in the face of Beni's desperation when he first met him online, but it seems only natural that someone would be moody in a situation like Koujaku's. "Well," he says. "You're the person who knows Koujaku the best, of course, but is it just his mood...?"

"Nah, man, that's the thing," Beni says. "Again, it's something that doesn't seem like it'd be important, right? He's been trying to find some famous tattoo artist."

"You're right, that doesn't seem important." 

"Right? Anyone would say that," Beni says. He pushes away, his face twisted up in a scowl, feathers on his head puffed out. "Right? He's got those tattoos anyone can see on his arm and chest, maybe he's just looking for something new? But he _hates tattoos_ , man!"

Huracan frowns. "Why would anyone who hates tattoos have them?"

"Yeah, but he does! Don't ask me why -- he got me after he got them. But you try to ask him about them and bam, watch him shut down and change the subject like that." Beni snaps his fingers, then seems impressed, briefly, with having fingers to snap. "--He pretends like he likes them but he hates them. Anyone who's seen him naked can tell. He digs his fingers in like he wants to rip them right off. And besides, if he _did_ want more tattoos, _one of his closest friends is a tattoo artist._ "

It takes Huracan a moment to place it. "You mean Mizuki?"

"Yeah! Koujaku is all about the bro code, you know? Even if he did want some really good ones, he wouldn't go for some famous tattoo artist if he has a friend right here. It'd have way more meaning if it came from a friend, you know, right? He's that type! Besides, he's also not goin' to MIzuki for information! That means that whatever it is is definitely something he doesn't want his friends to know about, so whatever information he's digging up on this asshole is a big deal."

Huracan nods placatingly. "All right. So him looking for a tattoo artist at all is unusual, especially when he already has friends in the business, and he's acting strange about it. Is that the gist of it?"

"Yeah!" Beni pulls away fully, flapping his sleeves out as he crosses his arms, then starts to pace. "The thing that really gets me is he won't tell me what he's doing or why. It's weird, and I can't get it off my mind. I'm his Allmate, you know? He tells me everything! Except this, apparently. Now, I was gonna talk to Ren about it because, you know, Ren's known Koujaku nearly as long as I have, and he's probably my closest friend, buuuut... I don't know if I should. I want to, man. Ren's always got a clear-headed way of looking at things, but if Koujaku wanted Aoba to know, he'd tell Aoba, and I'm not saying that Ren will tell Aoba, but ... well, you know? If Ren wanted to act on it he's got limited time and he ain't going anywhere without Aoba. What do I do?"

That's true enough. Ren may have advice, but he'll certainly be trapped about how to deal with this. "All right," he says. "Listen, I'm willing to investigate somewhat, but of course Ren will probably have questions about this. That said, he was in sleep mode last I checked, so I may be unable to bring him into this regardless."

"Oh..." Beni seems torn, unsure of whether he's relieved or more upset.

"So how about while he's asleep, I go and look for Mizuki."

Beni blinks, looking over at him with a comically startled face. "Right now?"

"Certainly. As you said, Mizuki might have information that Koujaku is looking for -- as such, if we can find out what it is, then we might understand better what Koujaku is doing. Besides," Huracan adds, putting his hands on his hips more for a lack of anything to do with them now that Beni's pulled away than anything else, "when you talk about suspicious tattoo artists and Mizuki, it's impossible not to think about Morphine, right?"

Beni's heavy brows draw down. "Now you mention it..."

Morphine, of course, had gotten away without any repercussions. Like the legend they'd become, they vanished back into the night as if they'd never made an appearance, as if Aoba and Mink and the others had never fought them. 

"All of Dry Juice had their tattoos overwritten by Morphine, as I recall it. It may be unrelated, but if looking into tattoos means your Koujaku is looking into Morphine... that might be why he's keeping everyone else out of it. It's not a safe thing to research, so he might be trying to keep them from becoming targets."

Hissing a breath between his teeth, Beni clutches at his head with both hands. "Aw, man! Now I'm even more worried...!"

"I'll go out now," Huracan says. "At this hour he should still be at the bar, yes? I'll keep in contact."

He signs out of online mode without waiting for Beni's response. Sure enough, Ren is still in sleep mode -- and the reason why is pretty clear.

"Nn, Mink... I want you, so... it's fine, we just have to be quiet..."

"We should go back to the hotel--"

"Mm, we're here now, right...?"

Well, they aren't going to notice his absence for a while, at least. He hops toward the veranda, nudges the door open lightly, and pushes it shut behind himself with his beak before taking off for Black Needle.

A few flights around finds a window in the bar area, and he raps on it with his beak a few times before Mizuki -- looking extremely taken aback at having an Allmate at his window with no owner in sight -- lets him in.

"Ah," he says. And then, "You're Huracan, right? Mink's bird?"

"That's right," Huracan says. "You must have seen me when Aoba called you-?"

"I wouldn't forget a handsome bird like you, no," Mizuki says with a laugh, and Huracan preens obligingly as he hops onto Mizuki's arm. "Is Aoba coming by soon or something? Just giving me a head's up?" 

Huracan shakes his head. "I'm here on personal visit," he says. "Well, for information."

Mizuki's smile both seems to fade and grow wider at the same time. "That so."

"For a friend," Huracan says.

"A friend, huh. Mink?"

"Not Mink," Huracan says. He settles his wings. "A personal friend."

Mizuki's flat look evens out a little more at that; he's certainly surprised, Huracan thinks, to hear that sort of thing. When Aoba had first called Mizuki to check up on him, Huracan had asked Ren about him; Mizuki was, according to Ren, a very kind man who was a good friend to Aoba, but who had no Allmate of his own and was disinterested in the idea of living disconnected from reality -- no Rhyme, no pretend playmate, just a Coil. Despite this, Ren had said firmly, Mizuki was always friendly and kind toward him; understood Aoba's feelings for him and respected Allmates' thoughts and feelings considering the fact that they were in fact artificial intelligences. He behaved that way even if he wanted none of his own. 

An Allmate having a friend of their own, acting away from their master, must be even more unusual to someone like Mizuki, Huracan thinks with some humor. Not that it isn't strange to anyone else. Not that it isn't strange to himself.

"A friend, huh. Not naming names?"

"I'm sorry," Huracan says. "I really don't mean to be rude. I just happen to have mobility at this moment when my friend does not."

"Another Allmate?"

"Just so," Huracan agrees.

Mizuki's face gentles even further. "Well. If it's for a friend, I suppose it's reasonable that you want to be so circumspect."

He's probably, Huracan thinks, thinking the friend is Ren -- a fellow Allmate who he lives with, less mobile than a bird. No need to disabuse him of the notion. "I apologize in advance for digging into personal matters, but it has to do with Morphine."

Mizuki goes very still, then slowly exhales a breath. "Hey, take over the bar for a bit," he calls to one of his workers, and takes Huracan with him into the back room -- the tattoo parlor. Nobody else is in there, and he sits beside the table and nudges Huracan to step off onto the table, which he does. 

"Again," Huracan says, "I do apologize. I understand that it must be a sensitive subject, but my friend was worried about something which might have some connection to them and I thought it best to go to someone who might know."

"Mm, no, that's worrying," Mizuki agrees, slowly. "If Morphine is showing up again... that's worrying."

"I don't know if they are or aren't," Huracan says. "But any answers you can give me will perhaps help us determine that."

Mizuki nods slowly, not smiling at all any more. "What do you want to know?"

"It's -- about the tattoos," Huracan says. "If you can talk about that element, I'd appreciate it. We know that Morphine tattooed on the throats of those involved, and those tattoos seemed to implant suggestions into them...?"

"Yeah," Mizuki says. His hand comes to the black mark on his throat. He's covered up where his own tattoo had been redone, but there's still a wide black swath there; it's not like it's so easy to get rid of black ink. He rests warm brown fingertips there and sighs. "When I sold out Dry Juice," he begins, and closes his eyes briefly. It must be hard, Huracan thinks, for him to say those words. But he continues. "When I sold out Dry Juice, I had talked to some local yakuza. I don't think you'd know them, and they seem to have disappeared since then. The yakuza agreed to hook us up to become part of Morphine, basically, and show up to get the tag art on us. But then they arrived and beat the shit out of everyone and the tag art was... wrong. The first people who got it turned on the rest, and so on."

Huracan shifts from foot to foot. "So the tattoos did change them."

"Yeah. Getting mine changed me too. My mind felt possessed, like the ink was just sinking into my blood and poisoning it. I felt ... I had already been desperate. It's a stupid story," Mizuki says, tired. "But that desperation became the only thing I could remember, and how powerful I felt when I was no longer desperate, when my 'family' was Morphine instead of Dry Juice."

He stops speaking, and Huracan considers him before saying, as gently as he can, "I'm sorry."

"Ah, well," Mizuki says. "It is what it is, isn't it...? They betrayed me. And it wasn't just them."

"Not just them?"

"The tattoo artist."

Huracan leans forward, narrowing his eye and watching him. "What about him?"

"There's... this artist I've always idolized," Mizuki says. His voice is softer now; part of it seems to be that he's tired, but the other part... Huracan thinks that he's afraid to be overheard, even though he's already withdrawn to privacy. "Shortly before Morphine began courting me for Dry Juice, he stopped by this place. I was over the moon, you know? My idol came here to take a look at my designs, just stopped by on his way through the city... He even gave me a design of his own, an artist's exchange, you know? I framed that thing."

His gaze flicks to the side, where a frame is overturned on the desk. It's obvious what it is, and Huracan is momentarily surprised that Mizuki still has it, even turned over. He wonders if Mizuki can't bear to part with it, or simply can't bear to look at it long enough to throw it away, or something else, some complicated combination of the two.

"And that's the guy Morphine brought in to tattoo us. Though it was probably the other way around," Mizuki says. "I think about that a lot. Probably, the reason Morphine started courting me, my team, is because Ryuuhou told them I was susceptible to it. So they got me, and he put that tattoo on me and my team, and he laughed about it. He apologized to me while laughing, and he said that it hurt to put something so generic on a fan who preferred his original designs, but Morphine had to look like Morphine, after all." 

"Ah," Huracan says, sympathetically.

"Does that help you out any?" Mizuki asks. "I never saw Morphine again after Aoba... dealt with me, and I haven't seen Ryuuhou again either."

"Yes," Huracan says. "It may. I'll have to put that information together with my friend."

Mizuki sighs. "Can I ask you a favor? Two things, actually."

"Certainly," Huracan says; fair is, as they say, fair. "What is it?"

"First, keep me updated," he says. "If this guy turns out to be involved, I want to be able to help somehow. Things are -- I've got a lot of personal things tied up in this, you know?"

"Of course. I don't know whether or not it will be, but I wouldn't like you to be brought into these troubles without your awareness again, at least," Huracan says.

Mizuki finally smiles again, though a worn-out half smile only. "Thanks. The other thing -- take that picture with you. Maybe it'll help you out, and if not, it's just... I don't know. Maybe it's time to let go of this."

"Ah," Huracan says, surprised. "If you prefer..."

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Huracan hops over to the frame, fiddling with it to get it undone, and plucks the fragile sketch paper out carefully. He rolls it between his beak and his feet, clutching it in one foot and hopping carefully on the other as he turns around. "There," he says. "Thank you again."

Mizuki waves a hand, dismissing it. "Like I said," he says, "if they're starting up anything again, I'd rather know about it, so maybe I should thank you. I'll be on my guard, anyway."

"Perhaps for the best," Huracan says. "I'll let you know if it's nothing."

He flies out through the bar window again, feeling a strange rush through him, tattoo design clutched tightly in his foot. It actually takes himself a moment to centre himself in his buzzing anticipation to send Beni a message: _Beni, do you know the name of the tattoo artist that Koujaku is trying to find?_

The reply comes instantly; Beni's obviously been waiting impatiently. _Yeah, of course. Even if he tries to keep me out of it, I'm connected to his Coil, you know. Some bitch named Ryuuhou._

So.

So then, Huracan thinks.

_I think we should meet,_ he messages Beni. _I'll be outside your window. Can you get out without alerting Koujaku?_

_Should be able to, he's all brooding again. Meet you in the tree outside._

Huracan nods, which is silly; nobody's there to see him. _On my way._

_Uh, Huracan, by the way?_ Beni sends, and seems almost flustered in the way he's composed it. _...Thanks, man. I... you know, I didn't think you were that reliable or anything, not the way you've been, but you've really saved my ass here. I don't know what to say, just... yeah, thanks._

Something in Huracan's body seems to catch fire then, seems to break, sending a warmth and energy pounding through him; he does a flip in the air before carrying on. It's bizarre, he thinks, it's absurd. He checks his systems and a quick diagnostics turns up nothing wrong. Just feelings, then.

_It's no problem_ , he answers.


End file.
